Jonathan Agnew plays hilarious '100th hundred' prank on Geoffrey Boycott live on Test Match Special
'You muppet, Agnew! I'll get you for that!'
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Jonathan Agnew played a prank on Geoffrey Boycott during England's final day victory over South Africa at the Oval that will surely go down in Test Match Special legend.
With the hosts cruising to victory on Monday afternoon, Agnew pulled out a supposed press release from the ICC concerning an England Test series in the 1970s.
“Further to the recent request from the South African government, the ICC has now considered the downgrading of all statistics including runs and wickets from the series played between England and the Rest of the World in 1970,” Agnew said.
“The ICC agrees that the series was played against the spirit of the Gleneagles agreement and that in the interests of keeping cricket free from political interference, all matches will be removed from First Class records.”
It was at this point that Boycott interrupted. “That’s ridiculous,” he said, with his trademark incredulous tone. “That’s a load of tripe!”
With listeners wondering what exactly was going on, it soon became clear that the press release had implications for Boycott’s career record.
Watch a video of the incident here:
TMS statistician Andrew Samson – also in on the prank – then asked Boycott: “You got a century in that series didn’t you?”
When Boycott acknowledged that he had, Samson said: “There’ll be a bit of a problem there if that is taken out…
“I think I see what Aggers is alluding to here, because your 100th hundred would now become your 99th hundred.”
Boycott, now clearly riled, added: “Isn’t it ridiculous?! Write to him [the ICC spokesperson], he’s an idiot… There might be others who got a hundred, and other records that you’ll have to…”
Agnew, now really twisting the knife, pointed out that Boycott’s 100th first-class century came at Headingley, the home ground of his beloved Yorkshire.
“Now hang on, I’m being serious a minute,” Agnew continued. “What date was Geoffrey’s 100th hundred?”
After having it confirmed as the 11 August 1977 – the 40th anniversary of which is in less than a fortnight, Agnew asked: “So, you haven’t got anything planned for that, have we? We’re not doing anything special?”
Boycott confirmed that he was holding a charity fundraising evening with 180 guests at his house.
“You’ll have to cancel it,” Agnew said.
“We are not cancelling it,” said Boycott, “it’s all sold and done.”
After a few more moments of letting it all sink in, Boycott huffed: “It’s a mess, isn’t it? A complete mess.”
Finally deciding to let him out of his misery Agnew said: “It’s also a complete wind up!”, to loud roars of laughter from the rest of the commentary box.
“Is that right?” Boycott exclaimed. “You muppet! It’s never?! Is that a wind up? You muppet, Agnew! I’ll get you for that.”
A video of the incident has been retweeted thousands of times, with fans young and old appreciating the prank.
Boycott vowed to avenge for the embarrassment, writing: "He's such a bugger that @Aggerscricket. I'll get him back, and everyone else involved @bbctms!"
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